Spring Rounds in Riga

May 25th 2015 will see the first performance of Spring Rounds, a half-hour piece for soprano, choir and orchestra, at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. Commissioned by the great youth choir Kamēr… for their 25th Anniversary, Spring Rounds will also feature soprano Jolanta Strikaite, and will be conducted by the Artistic Director of Kamēr…, Jānis Liepiņš. The special birthday concert will also include new music by Ēriks Ešenvalds and Raimonds Tiguls and will be broadcast by Latvian Radio and by Latvian Television.

To the field of stars

The premiere recording of my 35-minute Santiago de Compostela cantata To the field of stars is now available. Recorded last year by one of its co-commissioners, Stockholm’s St Jacobs Chamber Choir under its director Gary Graden, the disc is released by Footprint Records. A second recording of To the field of stars, by the Nonsuch Singers and Tom Bullard, will be released later this year.

Three new recordings

Already available is Nowell sing we, the title track of Worcester College Choir, Oxford’s second volume of contemporary Christmas pieces. The Choir of Royal Holloway’s November release Hymns to St Cecilia contains the premiere recording of La musique in which the choir is joined by Holloway alumna Dame Felicity Lott. Also due in November is the Gerard Manley Hopkins setting I say that we are wound with mercy, part of Merton College, Oxford’s Marian Collection.

25th anniversary of the Latvian Youth Choir Kamēr…

I have been commissioned to write a half-hour piece for choir and orchestra to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Latvian Youth Choir Kamēr… The first performance will be on 25 May 2015 at a special birthday concert at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. The texts will range from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and will also include a specially-written 21st century poem by Kārlis Verdiņš